About ten thousand people marched through Nepal's capital yesterday, demanding the restoration of democracy in the biggest show of opposition strength since King Gyanendra seized absolute power three months ago.
In two rallies organized by unions to commemorate May Day, demonstrators carried placards calling for an end to the king's direct rule. Gyanendra on Saturday lifted a state of emergency that had given police unlimited powers, but retained direct rule. The demonstrators stayed away from restricted areas around the king's palace and government offices, and police did not interfere with the protests.
In the biggest show of strength since Gyanendra seized power in February, nearly 2,000 people participated in the first rally and another 8,000 in the second march through the streets of Katmandu, watched by people from homes and rooftops.
PHOTO: AP
The protesters carried red flags and chanted: ``We want democracy, down with autocracy.''
Nepal's major political parties vowed yesterday to continue widespread protests to resist the king's absolute rule and to demand the return of democracy in the Himalayan nation, despite the monarch lifting a three-month-old state of emergency. He still rules without an elected government or parliament and there has been no word on the release of hundreds of political workers jailed under emergency rule. Censorship on the media continues and a dozen journalists remain in jail for criticizing the monarchy. Cable operators are still banned from airing Indian news channels, which have been critical of the king's actions.
Gyanendra also extended the term of a royal commission set up under emergency rule to probe corruption during the past 14 years of democratic rule. Several political leaders, including sacked Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, were arrested recently at the direction of the commission.
The government said emergency was lifted because security had improved in Nepal. But Kashinath Adhikari of the Communist Party of Nepal said that, "The ban on protests in the main areas of Katmandu is an example that there is still authoritarian rule in Nepal."
The surprise lifting of the state of emergency followed the king's return on Friday from visits to China, Indonesia and Singapore, where leaders pressed him to restore democracy. At an African-Asian Summit in Indonesia days ago, Gyanendra met several leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Annan urged Nepal to "return to constitutional rule as soon as possible."
The meeting with Singh was crucial, because India -- a key arms source for Nepal's fight against the communist insurgency -- suspended military aid after Gyanendra's power grab. Singh agreed to resume it after Gyanendra reportedly assured him that Nepal would restore democracy.
TIT-FOR-TAT: The arrest of Filipinos that Manila said were in China as part of a scholarship program follows the Philippines’ detention of at least a dozen Chinese The Philippines yesterday expressed alarm over the arrest of three Filipinos in China on suspicion of espionage, saying they were ordinary citizens and the arrests could be retaliation for Manila’s crackdown against alleged Chinese spies. Chinese authorities arrested the Filipinos and accused them of working for the Philippine National Security Council to gather classified information on its military, the state-run China Daily reported earlier this week, citing state security officials. It said the three had confessed to the crime. The National Security Council disputed Beijing’s accusations, saying the three were former recipients of a government scholarship program created under an agreement between the
Sitting around a wrestling ring, churchgoers roared as local hero Billy O’Keeffe body-slammed a fighter named Disciple. Beneath stained-glass windows, they whooped and cheered as burly, tattooed wresters tumbled into the aisle during a six-man tag-team battle. This is Wrestling Church, which brings blood, sweat and tears — mostly sweat — to St Peter’s Anglican church in the northern England town of Shipley. It is the creation of Gareth Thompson, a charismatic 37-year-old who said he was saved by pro wrestling and Jesus — and wants others to have the same experience. The outsized characters and scripted morality battles of pro wrestling fit
ACCESS DISPUTE: The blast struck a house, and set cars and tractors alight, with the fires wrecking several other structures and cutting electricity An explosion killed at least five people, including a pregnant woman and a one-year-old, during a standoff between rival groups of gold miners early on Thursday in northwestern Bolivia, police said, a rare instance of a territorial dispute between the nation’s mining cooperatives turning fatal. The blast thundered through the Yani mining camp as two rival mining groups disputed access to the gold mine near the mountain town of Sorata, about 150km northwest of the country’s administrative capital of La Paz, said Colonel Gunther Agudo, a local police officer. Several gold deposits straddle the remote area. Agudo had initially reported six people killed,
SUSPICION: Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing returned to protests after attending a summit at which he promised to hold ‘free and fair’ elections, which critics derided as a sham The death toll from a major earthquake in Myanmar has risen to more than 3,300, state media said yesterday, as the UN aid chief made a renewed call for the world to help the disaster-struck nation. The quake on Friday last week flattened buildings and destroyed infrastructure across the country, resulting in 3,354 deaths and 4,508 people injured, with 220 others missing, new figures published by state media showed. More than one week after the disaster, many people in the country are still without shelter, either forced to sleep outdoors because their homes were destroyed or wary of further collapses. A UN estimate
RSS